(from ISKCON News)
What’s tradition? It’s simply an idea or practice that has managed to be passed on for some time. Google defines tradition as: “the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation.” Merriam-Webster offers other angles, defining it as “an inherited, established, or customary pattern of thought, action, or behavior (such as a religious practice or a social custom)” and “cultural continuity in social attitudes, customs, and institutions.”
Since Gaudiya-vaisnavism is based on Vedic revelation, which Gaudiyas accept as an eternal manifestation of knowledge, can be certainly considered traditional or traditionalistic. (You can’t get more traditional than eternity.) Its theological understanding have no beginning in historical time.
At the same time, when we go to analyze social attitudes, customs or behaviors, we encounter an exceptional flexibility in genuine Gaudiya-vaisnavism. We find an approach unchanging on principles but fluid on details.
